You have to hand it to Spacey. He gets by on sheer willfulness. He believes so much in his cockeyed dream that we come to believe in it, too.
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12/30/04
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Beyond the Sea (2004)
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Reviews Counted:148
Fresh:63
Rotten:85
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: Kevin Spacey’s bio of singer Bobby Darin is either a fearless piece of showmanship or an embarrassing vanity project, according to critics.
Theatrical Release:Dec 17, 2004 Limited
Box Office: $6,144,806
Synopsis: For BOBBY DARIN (Kevin Spacey), performing was his life. It kept his heart beating. He came alive onstage, even when he was near collapse offstage. In BEYOND THE SEA, Bobby tells his own story.... [More]
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, Brenda Blethyn, Caroline Aaron
Director: Kevin Spacey
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Reviews for Beyond the Sea
Spacey may worship at the altar of Darin, but the real Bobby was beyond him.
12/30/04
[Spacey is] someone who is capable of producing, writing, directing, starring and doing his own singing -- and making it all work magnificently.
12/30/04
It is a bold experiment that collapses under the weight of its own eclecticism. And as a result, it says less about Darin than it does about Spacey.
12/30/04
Watching Kevin Spacey's hilariously inept recreation of Bobby Darin's life in Beyond the Sea brings to mind the old Neil Diamond- Laurence Olivier remake of The Jazz Singer.
12/30/04
In dramatic terms Beyond the Sea never rises above the level of a halfway decent made-for-TV film.
12/30/04
Offers little psychological insight into the man beyond his mantra -- 'I want it all. ... I want to surpass Sinatra in everything he does.'
12/30/04
Top CriticFor the most part this movie is a kick to watch, and what a crazy-cool thing for a guy with two Oscars to attempt, a salute from one wandering artist to another.
12/30/04
Not unpleasant to watch, but it's another movie in which the art direction and costuming, and, of course, the soundtrack, are of more interest than the story, whatever it is.
12/30/04
Top CriticSeems more intent on getting the musical numbers right than telling the story.
12/30/04
Proves Spacey knows Darin's ambitions, egotism, controlling nature, swinging performance style, family dynamics and lifelong fear of the early death that came in 1973 -- everything, I think, except that he's miscast as Darin's idol.
12/30/04
Your standard biopic boilerplate, with a lot of self-reflexive hokum.
12/30/04
Top CriticThe one thing Spacey couldn't do for Beyond the Sea was grow younger. And that's the 'gotta-shut-your-eyes' flaw that keeps Spacey's Bobby Darin biopic from being a great movie, instead of just a good one.
12/30/04
Ostensibly a love letter to Mr. Darin, it's more a love letter from Mr. Spacey to Mr. Spacey.
12/30/04
Top CriticThe artist formerly known as Keyser Soze reminds us with every classic high note in the titular song that we’re listening to a facsimile with a weaker range.
12/30/04
Beyond the Sea doesn't quite have [that swing]. But it's close.
12/29/04
Top CriticThe movie possesses genuine feeling because Spacey is there with Darin during all the steps of this journey, up and down, all the way into death.
12/29/04
Top CriticA movie so inventive and varied in its badness that it's almost good.
12/29/04
Spacey's singing turns out to be the most plausible and appealing element of Beyond the Sea. It's just about everything else that needed rethinking.
12/29/04
A movie that gets a few things absolutely right while getting quite a few other things very, very wrong indeed.
12/29/04
Latest News for Beyond the Sea
June 29, 2006:
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